January was a bit busy for me, tried to figure out what I wanted to do this year but failed lol. Been out practice driving and still scared about hitting anything. Finished both Bayonetta games, still haven’t finished Jakou no Lyla or caught up with Toraware no Palm Refrain (I’m sorry).

Hopefully I can power through Jakou no Lyla Vol.1 this month before my copy of Vol.2 comes. May have to power through Toraware no Palm Refrain too, before the final episode comes. Today I might be busy as Readyyy releases on this very day, so maybe I can squeeze it in there somewhere. I promise this month I’ll get around writing a review for Toraware no Palm Refrain prologue + episode 1. Been meaning to doing it for a while now.

Anyway, hopefully I can do a lot this month. Now onto me summarising this month’s releases to the best of my ability.

Kiniro no Corda Octave is a multi-platform release on the PS Vita, the Nintendo Switch and on PC via Steam. Might be the first time in otoge history for a game to release simultaneously on three different platforms (though I’m not well-versed in otoge history so don’t take my word for it). Octave is a bit of a spin-off game for the Kiniro no Corda series, similarly to the Utapri spin-off games “Uta no Prince-sama Music” series. In Octave there are rhythm mini-games and two “routes”/stories, one route focuses on the cast of Kiniro no Corda 2 and the other route focuses on the cast of Kiniro no Corda 3.

Jakou no Lyla ~Allure of Musk~ Vol.3 Arabian Nights is a PC game, the third and final volume of the Jakou no Lyla series of games. It focuses on the king of Shanasa (a fictional Arabian kingdom) and the heroine’s “adopted little brother” who doesn’t wanna be seen as a little brother. The heroine acts as a spy, her target being the king of Shanasa as she disguises herself as his would-be fiancee. The three of them (including the heroine) can be involved in a love triangle. The trial version of this volume can be found here.

Gekidan Prince is a PC game made by the company who brought us Gakuen Handsome. Instead of a parody BL game, Gekidan Prince is a parody(?) otome game voiced by a handful of Utaite (singers who cover vocaloid songs). It’s about stage actors(?) and you act as the heroine who gets involved in the theatre company due to circumstances. There is already a trial version up on their website.

Yunohana SpRING! ~Mellow Times~ for Nintendo Switch is a port of two games into one Nintendo Switch cartridge. The game includes the original Yunohana SpRING! game plus its fandisc Yunohana SpRING! Cherishing Time that includes a new character route.

That’s about it for this month. I’ll for sure buy Jakou no Lyla Vol.3 limited edition to complete the set 😂 But I won’t get anything else this month. Hopefully I can get around to playing the trial version of Gekidan Prince to see what that’s about.

Thanks! I’m spending my evening just rerolling in the initial gacha for Readyyy until I get something really good lol. I wish I could make up my mind on what is “good enough” though haha.
Good luck on your driving lesson too!

Hey Billy. Great post! Love simulation otome games aren’t really my cup of tea but Kiniro no Corda Octave seems promising. Another game that got me curious is Yunohana SpRING! If you’re interested in these games, may be you’d also be interested in Doki Doki Literature Club. It’s a dating sim turned psychological horror game.

Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately I’ve been spoilt on major plot points through osmosis from being on the internet during it’s peak in popularity so I may not find enjoyment from playing it compared to those who played it blindly without knowing all the twists, which is the reason why I refrain from playing it. I’m sorry.

Lovin that Jakou no Lyla image haha. I just downloaded Readyyy even though I 100% don’t need to be playing anymore mobage games lmao! Good luck with your practice driving!! Also, don’t know if you know this but uhhh Ken ga Toki CN version is out on QooApp and I’m literally waiting for the resource pack to finish downloading as I type this message lol have absolutely 0 clue when it came out cus I haven’t been paying attention to the announcements but uh… yeah. It’s out. Lol anyways thanks for all your hard work as usual!

Omg, Ken ga Toki doing a sneaky again huh lol. Actually I’m pretty surprised it got a release before Rejet could announce more information on it to its Japanese audience 🤔 Quite peculiar. Maybe I’ll try it out a bit, though I’d prolly get lost bc I dont understand the language.

Yeah lol it’s def been out for at least a week or so now I think? Because there’s some notices from the 22nd of January sooo at least a week or two I’m guessing. But yeah it’s pretty odd that it’s out before the JP one…

LOL yeah I was under the impression there would be a simplified option but then I downloaded it and realized it’s all in traditional… luckily I can read traditional pretty well but there’s some characters I’m like ?_? thank god for dictionaries lmao

I had no idea the trial for Jakou no Lyla Vol.3 was out already. I might give it a go before I install Vol.1 (the guys in Vol.3 are my favourites so far) My Vol.1 literally just arrived last week and the Limited edition IS really pretty. I just wish I knew text hook code for VNR. I suck so much at reading narration written in 3rd person. I’m more used to stories being pushed through dialogue and monologue of the heroine. The kanji in that kind of storytelling doesn’t seem so difficult, plus a good portion of it is voiced. It would also help if I wasn’t so lazy to actually search for unknown kanji in dictionary… XD

By the way, one of the things I really wonder about is the length : money ratio of Jakou no Lyla games. I mean, the games aren’t terribly pricey, but it’s only 2 guys per a volume, so I hope the storylines are on the longer side.